NYC lawyers don’t want NYPD cop’s ‘Bullethead’ street name cited at Brooklyn wrongful arrest trial
City lawyers want an NYPD sergeant’s nickname barred from testimony in an upcoming Brooklyn Federal Court trial accusing five cops of wrongful arrest.
Sgt. David Grieco is known by the street name “Bullethead” to plaintiff Justin McClarin and potential witness Desmonn Beckett, the plaintiff’s lawyer Eylan Schulman says in court papers.
Having a witness identify Grieco by that name in court “is not unduly inflammatory or prejudical,” Schulman says.
“Requiring McClarin and Beckett to identify the defendant Grieco by another name — that they are unfamiliar with — will require them to substantively change their testimony and likely render their testimony less natural and fluid on a critical issue for the trial,” Schulman wrote.
But Zachary Kalmbach, a city lawyer, said in a motion the “Bullethead” nickname means nothing to the case and will distract the jury.
“Indeed, defendant Grieco’s purported nickname is completely irrelevant to the issues at trial, and thus it provides no probative value whatsoever,” Kalmbach wrote in court papers.
Jury selection in the trial is scheduled to start Wednesday.
McClarin was busted Dec. 13, 2015, at his East New York home and arrested him for drug possession and for kidnapping and threatening his girlfriend.
McClarin alleged in his lawsuit that after police barged into his home, he was taken outside and slammed to the ground so hard his shoulder was separated, and that police later shot him with a BB gun in the 75th Precinct stationhouse. All criminal charges against him were later dismissed, his lawyer said.
Grieco, a 16-year veteran, got his nickname from his days at the 75th Precinct in East New York, where residents repeatedly accused him of unconstitutional street stops, illegal arrest and raids without warrants.
He has been named a defendant in nearly 50 lawsuits, with the city paying out $1,006,750 in settlement money.
The NYPD has said Grieco kept New Yorkers safe from drugs and violence and has been involved in hundreds of arrests for which he was not sued.
